I couldn't quite get the cadence right on the last line of the poem below, but oh well...that's what happens when you try to write something in a matter of minutes. My English teacher would be SO sad.

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A wall of trees, all alike.
I stand alone during mid-day hike
The sun above struggles through
Hits the ground, life starts anew.
My friends look up, so far away
To see the same sun on a different day

North is up?

Apparently moss doesn't really just grow on the North side, but it is pretty to look at even if it doesn't know where it should be! It feels as soft and velvety as it looks.

Spring Walk

I am back to writing again. I think I was in a little bit of a Spring Funk. For those of you who don't know, Spring Funk is a seasonal disorder that I get every year. I love the springtime, but it always makes me feel a little maudlin and moody. I think this is because when I was a kid, my Dad was transferred every 2 years and he'd get his orders in the spring and we knew we'd be moving again that summer. So spring, to me, is reminiscent of the excitement of a new adventure and also the sadness of change.

Today however, was a wonderful day. The sun was out, the birds are carrying on with great emotion...whistling and calling each other. The squirrels are running up and down the trees to Gypsy's immense joy. ("gotta catch one, gotta, gotta, I hear them teasing me...please, just one small mouthfull of squirrel.") The snow is almost gone and we have resumed our walks in the "real" bush.

What dogs do when alone...

When Steven and I go out we know that Gypsy sleeps ON the bed in the spare room. However, until recently we didn't realize that she has taken to sleeping IN it now....see below! This is what we discover now after we come home from each hockey game.

After....

Honest to God, did she have company over or what???

It's getting closer

I wonder if she'll make me some Irish Stew? I pose so nicely that you's think I'd get SOME sort of St. Paddy's Day treat...

Faith & begorra

Happy St Patrick's Day from Gypsy O'Smitna!

Hoooray! I figured out where my colour and Fonts were. They weren't really anywhere, it was a simple click of a button that I needed.

What I wanted to talk about today though, is overly large people on airplanes. Every now and then you read an article about someone who has decided to sue an airline, either because they were told they are too large for 1 seat and are forced to buy 2 seats, or, the other side of the story, where someone is sitting beside a large person and has a crummy trip because they are squished.

When it's the first scenario, the person always claims they are being discriminated against, and when it's the second scenario, that person claims that they bought a space and are entitled to have the exact same amount of space as the large person who is beside them (and oozing into their area.)

Well, I always agreed with the non-large person, and now I can claim to have almost experienced it first hand. I say "almost" because it was only for 17 minutes, but it was the worst 17 minutes ever. The flight from Vancouver to Victoria is a short hop across the water, but in a regular Dash 8 type of plane.

When I got on the plane and saw a large man sitting by the window, I was a little concerned as he really was pretty big. I sat down and he had to shift himself over towards the window, and I squeezed myself in. We could NOT put the armrest down as he was too big to fit in his seat and he did indeed "ooze" into my area. I know that sounds rude to say, but it's true. I had to lean towards the aisle and his body was touching mine, through no fault of his own. He was apologetic (and thank goodness he smelled nice) My neck was sort of bent away from him and, as I said, the flight was only for a few minutes so it wasn't worth a complaint. But Good God, if it were a 2-3 hour flight (or longer...) I don't know what I'd do. There was NO ROOM for 2 of us.

This is something that truely needs to be looked into by the airlines a little closer. He had to ask for a seatbelt extender, I sort of think that that is a dead giveaway that the passenger is TOO BIG. I know that Southwest has a policy about this, and they are always being sued, but kudos to them for sticking to their guns.

That's my rant of the day. Make large people buy 2 seats.

Dad

I guess it's fairly obvious that the 2 pictures below are of me and my Dad, but I forgot to write anything when I downloaded them, and then I was out of my mind for 2 days with The Dreaded Toothache Pain. However I am now pain free as a result of a dentist visit and a pair of dental pliers. Yes, he pulled it, dentists really want to always save teeth (which I guess is understandable) but this one (back molar) had been filled years ago and part of the filling had fallen out and it was abcsessed. Long story short...I had three choices:
1) Titanium post and new tooth, involving surgury and time...$3,000
2) Root canal and crown, involving a little less time........$1,475
3) Pull it and be done with it in 45 minutes for $96.00......Priceless

And yes, for those of you (I was one) who hadn't priced out dental work lately, those prices are "thousand" and yes they are REAL! YIKES!

Dad

 

 

Colour?

Hmm. I can't figure out where the font things are and the colour. This new version is identical to the old one, except for that.

Is it the Sea air?

My mind has taken off on strange tangents during this visit to Victoria. I think bizarre thoughts and have most unusual daydreams...and night dreams for that matter. I am glad to know that I am not the only one though, has anyone seen the new movie:"The Number 23"? I haven't seen it yet myself, but I already had heard of the phenomena of #23.

For decades now people have been obsessing about the number 23. We have 46 chromosones in our body, 23 from each parent. The earth's axis is tilted 23 degrees. Julius Caesar was born on Sept 23 and was stabbed to death 23 times. George Herbert Walker Bush...23 letters in his name. Princess Leia was imprisoned in Block 23. In the background of the footage of the Rodney King beatings, there is a big sign in the background with nothing on it but a big "23".

Some people say that noticing all these number 23's is like learning any new word, you know, you've never seen or heard a word before and then all of a sudden it's everywhere? Well, maybe, but this 23 thing has been going on in strange places for a long time, even Popeye; in his cartoons of the 70's he is often seen pondering a 23, in the movie The Big Lebowski they bowl in lane 23 and in the infamous Seinfeld episode where they lose the car in the parking garage, where is it? Purple 23. Those are sort of "fun" 23's, but they do get dark.

It's mentioned all over in The Matrix and in Lost. What's it all mean?

It started with William S Burroughs who began keeping a scrapbook of 23 coincidences after he met a ferry captain in Tangier named Clark. The captain claimed to have been sailing the same route for 23 years without ever having an accident. That day, his ferry sank, killing all on board. Later that same day, Burroughs heard about an airplane that crashed en route from NY to Miami-it was flight 23 piloted by a man called Clark.

Doo, doo, dooo, doo. (you know, Twilight Zone music)

Then you can involve the adding of numbers aspect. Oklahoma and Waco were both on April 19th (4th month plus 19 days =23) Air India was June 23, 1985 ( the numbers in 1985 also add up to 23) Twin Towers? 9/11/2001, all those numbers add up to 23. Hurricane Katrina formed over the Bahamas on Aug. 23.

Coincidence? I don't know. I love this sort of stuff myself, and it always makes me think. I have been sitting here adding up my family's names and birthdates in all sorts of combinations and nothing adds up to 23. I think maybe that's a good thing since almost all the 23's seem to be either harbingers of doom (well, not really, but I have always wanted to use that expression: "harbingers of doom") or dates of unpleasant happenings. So go ahead...add up the letters in your name or your birthdate...I dare ya!